014 - War Paint - I

The Imperial Navy's Fleet Markings

The Kido Butai, a combined fleet of six carriers, was comprised of three Carrier Divisions. Different Striking Forces were assembled to accentuate their similar strengths for better utilization on the field of play.

The First Carrier Division, which consisted of the Akagi and the Kaga, was formed using the two converted cruisers. These were large 850-foot long, 100-foot wide flattops that could hold well over 80 planes each and had a range of 12,000 miles.

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Ships in a carrier division each had their own set of cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and tenders. When one ship in a division was in trouble, it was the duty of other ships in that division to provide support for that ship. For that reason, planes were assigned tail markings to indicate their assigned ship.

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The planes of the lead ship, Akagi, were marked with a single red stripe, while the planes from the second ship, Kaga, were marked with two stripes.

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Additionally, the planes of the Second Carrier Division, the Soryu and Hiryu, were named the Fast Carrier Force, which were nearly 100 feet shorter and 20 feet thinner than the large carrier, which allowed them to travel almost 40 MPH in the water compared to the slower 33.5 MPH of the Akagi and Kaga.

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The Fifth Carrier Division included the newer Shokaku and Zuikaku, which were built without the restrictions of the old Washington Naval Treaty between the U. S., Great Britain, and Japan. Now, the Japanese explored all the benefits of the faster carriers of the 2^nd Division with the carrying capacity of the 1^st Division. The Shokaku and Zuikaku were now armed with twice as many anti-aircraft guns as the other carriers and carried the same number of planes.

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